Dee Dee Myers explains women's need to lead

Thursday

Feb 27, 2014 at 10:12 PMFeb 27, 2014 at 10:14 PM

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Dee Dee Myers thinks women are different from men. And they need to bring those differences to leadership roles in politics, business and other professions, to make the world a better place.

"It's not about political correctness," Ms. Myers said. "It's hard, cold self-interest. We should do it because it's the smart thing to do."

Ms. Myers, a political analyst, editor for Vanity Fair, bestselling author of "Why Women Should Rule the World," and former White House press secretary for President Clinton, spoke to an audience of some 700 people Thursday at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts.

The talk was part of the Worcester Connects speaker series.

When Ms. Myers came to Washington, D.C., in late 1992 as the first woman and second-youngest-ever White House press secretary, there were two women in the U.S. Senate. By 2009, when she wrote her book, there were 16.

Seeing more women in power and the way they did business collaboratively sparked her interest in what women could add if they were side-by-side in charge with men.

"They came together all the time, and they worked together ... and they drank white wine together," Ms. Myers said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal., told her that whenever she crafted legislation, she would look for the way to get the most conservative woman in the Senate, Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tex., to sign on to the bill.

Ms. Myers cited other examples, including having three recent female U.S. secretaries of state shift foreign policy to strengthen countries by investing in women, to studies showing corporate boards that have higher percentages of women perform significantly better financially.

But despite the seemingly obvious benefit of getting to better outcomes with a more inclusive process, Ms. Myers said we're still talking about "first" women and still have relatively few women in power because of internal and external obstacles.

"There's still a double standard. Women have to be just a little bit better to be judged just as good," she said.

Even appearances can get in the way of women getting their message across.

"A bad hair day is a virtual mute button for women," Ms. Myers said. "I tell young women you have to take it off the table as an issue, otherwise it becomes an obstacle."

She said women need to stop being shy about their value: "There is a confidence gap, a credit gap, a raise-the-hand gap that I think holds women back."

As for the mega-obstacle of motherhood, Ms. Myers said: "We have to talk about motherhood as a training ground. If high school football counts, don't you think raising kids should count?"

Women's leadership could take a giant step forward if Hillary Clinton, whom Ms. Myers called "the most formidable political figure in the country," runs for president in 2016.